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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Chores in Winter...

(this pic is from the ice storm last January...there really hasn't been many good winter photo ops for this year...and I am just as glad, too.)

Anyone who lives out in the sticks and has livestock can relate I am sure. Doing chores in winter is such a drag. Hubby bears the brunt of it, especially now since I have the baby to look after. But I try to do my part.

For starters you have to dress up like the Michelin man (he's this tire company's cartoon dude-all puffy and bulky looking) in about 100 layers of clothing, some of it insulated. I start off with just a t-shirt, then a pair of insulated coveralls, then a flocked hooded zippy sweater, then an old quilted chore coat. Then you finally add a pair of insulated boots, which weigh about a ton and give your legs a good workout. This process takes most of the morning and by the time you have the next-to-the-last layer on you realize that you have to go to the bathroom, so you go and then start the process all over again. When you are finally ready to go out you discover that the baby has untucked herself and you have to try to bend over and tuck her back into her carrier; not an easy task when you can only lean over a couple of inches before you are gasping for air due to the layers of clothing pinching you in half. Once you step out the door you waddle off to the barn to get started.

The past week the temps were in the single digits (Fahrenheit) and did not get above freezing for a few days. This means we add a chore to our list of duties; we have to chop ice on the ponds, a tedious chore to say the least. But I have found, as with most chores, there is always some way you can make it fun. You whack out a fairly good-sized chunk of ice and if you are really careful you can take the axe and flip it out onto the solid ice. Usually it will break into a couple of chunks. Then you take the axe, use it like a hockey stick and see how far you can punt the ice chunks across the frozen pond.